


fireproof

by lokis



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: 5 Times, 5+1 Things, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 08:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6975985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lokis/pseuds/lokis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>five times finn lost something to a fire, and one time he didn't</p>
            </blockquote>





	fireproof

_1_

 

He doesn't remember the first time very clearly, his memories singed with fire and clouded with smoke. It was back on his home planet, but he doesn't remember where that is either. What he does remember, is screaming, and loud noises, and guns, and a burning red consuming everything in sight.

What he does remember, is a man armored in stark white, standing out clearly in front of the fire and dust, grabbing him roughly by the neck and throwing him into a black and white world; cold and desolate. He never saw that planet again.

 

_2_

 

The second time, he has a name. A name that wasn't lost to the fire. No, names are only for important figures, like Captain Phasma, and General Hux, and Kylo Ren. He has a designation; and it's FN-2187. FN-2187 is handed a blaster rifle when he is 8 years old. Phasma had took him and his fellow troopers to a mining colony, to restore order to strikes happening there. It was a coming of age sort of thing, learning how to shoot. The twist is, you're thrown into the field. Take another's life, or your own will be taken from you. Your choice. FN-2187 shot a blubbering man, trying to negotiate with him. His life ended in a artificial red blaze.

Later, in secret, tears stained his pillow, as Slip risked a short pat to his back.

 

_3_

 

The third time, Slip brought a small contraption that played music back to the bunkers. He had taken it from a town they had just raided. They risked playing it, in the fragile safety between the silent metal beds. Though it was old, and cracked, and staticky, the worn melancholy tune whirred to life, and all the troopers closed their eyes and savored the sliver of life that they would never have. Phasma came in then, shattering the calm, and shot the contraption right out of Slip's hands. He still had scars from where the metal cut into his skin.

Sometimes, when no one was listening, the troopers would hum the song, because a fragmented life is better than none at all.

 

_4_

 

The fourth time FN-2187 lost something to fire is on Jakku. Stormtroopers are but numbers, faceless and replaceable. When Slip fell, that's what FN-2187 tried to tell himself.

"Stop looking out for him, leave him behind," echoed Phasma's voice in his head.

But FN-2187 was always too soft, too caring, too hesitant to kill real, not simulated, people. He stopped looking out for Slip and Slip died. FN-2187 ended up with three streaks of blood on his helmet, and a burning resolve to escape from the First Order as soon as possible. Slip was engulfed in the flames like all the rest of the dead people, buried into the sands of Jakku.

 

_5_

 

The fifth time, he actually does have a name. A real name. A name that Poe Dameron, his pilot savior gave him. Finn. It makes him feel human, and real, and everything that a stormtrooper isn't. Things were looking up, until their stolen TIE-fighter is shot by a missile. Then everything is falling, falling, falling, in a dizzying spiral of fumes. Finn ejected, but he doesn't know if Poe did. He trudges his way back to crash, only to find fiery wreckage, and no sign of Poe. He salvages Poe's jacket, and wanders about to the nearest settlement. The sun and the sand and the jacket feel too hot on his skin. Everything burns.

 

_+1_

 

Poe isn't dead. _Poe isn't dead_. Finn's emotions are unleashed all at once, and he rushes forward, or maybe Poe does. Poe hugs him, and Finn is overwhelmed. Poe tells him to keep the jacket, and Finn has never been happier.

  
With Poe, Finn doesn't lose anything. Poe gives, and gives, and gives, until he runs out of things to give. Unsurprisingly, that hasn't happened yet. Poe gives Finn a name, his jacket, a friend, a home. Poe gives him stories, and songs (without Poe knowing, who sings when he thinks no one can hear him), and knowledge; things that Finn was never taught, and things that he had been lied to about. The most important thing Poe gave Finn though, is love.

  
And that love is fueled with fire.

**Author's Note:**

> something that's been in the back of my head for a while now :0


End file.
